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Five oncology nurses at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) – most with less than a year of experience under their belts – listened closely as a panel of former patients and family members of patients told stories of their personal experiences on a cancer unit at HUP.

The first successful surgery under anesthesia occurred in the 1840s. Since then—more than 170 years later—people have been developing theories about what might be going on in the brain while a person is unconscious. And many mysteries remain.

Like most teenagers, Allison “Alli” Zellers loved to sleep late on weekends. But one Sunday morning, Alli’s plans to stay in bed were interrupted by a twinge of pain at the back of her neck. When the pain persisted despite rest, medication, and physical therapy, her doctor ordered an MRI.

The thing that scared me the most was that I couldn’t move. My body was paralyzed. No, not paralyzed. Something was holding me in place.

Diana Kane, MD, knew something was very wrong. It had been a week since she had undergone an outpatient procedure at a local surgical center and for the past five days she had been experiencing symptoms of an infection.